The Hindu Business Line : NSICT curbs on box movement

WITH yard inventory having risen to 17,000 TEUs on Monday, the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), run by P&O Ports, has decided to close the gates for all export containers until further notice.

The gates shall be closed at 6.00 a.m. on February 10. However, for perishable and reefer cargoes, the gates will remain open for 48 hours, according to informed sources.

As of today (Monday), as many as 3,543 import containers are awaiting evacuation out of NSICT and another 1,201 TEUs out of JNPT and 35 per cent of these boxes are bound for Tughlakabad inland container depot (ICD) near Delhi and the balance for the ICDs located at Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Moradabad.

The pendancy of import containers at NSICT/JNPT is causing congestion of export containers at the ICD levels. The situation is particularly critical at Tughlakabad where nearly 2,000 export containers are believed to be awaiting transportation to NSICT/JNPT. A section of shippers apprehend that it might take at least one week to clear the congestion.

It might be noted that on February 6, NSICT issued a circular announcing suspension of booking of export containers at Tughlakabad ICD for NSICT in view of detention of trains at ports and en-route as a sequel to storage handling and transportation problem at NSICT. This resulted in heavy pendancy of NSICT-bound containers at ICDs located at Tughlakabad and other places.